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Excluding
children/expulsion/suspension?

2014

Hi All,
I'm looking for some help with citing an author/idea.
When I was in school, I recall reading the idea that:
"We require by law that children attend school, yet when they are
incapable of meeting our expectations we exclude them through
suspensions and expulsion. "
The idea was that we require them to attend school, but when they
struggle, rather than help them we exclude them, and the harm that
these mixed messages can cause. I'd like to use this idea more formally
in my work, which is why I want to track it down. I have tried looking
it up myself without luck.
Any help/leads are appreciated!
Tom Golightly
...

School to Prison Pipeline is the framework for the article linked to.
There is considerable work using this as an analytical point by which to
investigate what happens in schools use by way of discipline, how it is
inequitably applied to various racialized groups.
http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/pipeline-to-prison
Restorative Schools. The next link takes you to the whole body of work
done under the Restorative Philosophy umbrella in schools. I don't know
where you live but there is section here on what is happening in Ontario
Schools.
http://restorativeworks.net/schools/
Peacemaking Circles. Check out the book....Peacemaking Circles and Urban
Youth by Carolyn Boyes-Watson. Chronicles a grass-roots agency and
centre that utilizes and synergizes the values of the Circle of Courage
and Peacemaking Circles, to engage and work on transformation for youth
who have been marginalized and excluded from the mainstream....both
school discipline and youth justice "victims".

Rick Kelly
....
Am not sure where you are from but the school Act lays out the
expectations and in BC there is even a fine associated with not insuring
that your child is being appropriately schooled.
Janet
....
Tom,
Take a look at article 42 of the Irish Constitution (you will find it on
the Irish Government web-site) if you want an international angle on
requirements for education.
It basically says that children should receive a basic minimum education
but that does not have to be in a school established by the state, and
the state shall not oblige a family 'in violation of their conscience'
to send a child to a school established by the state. So in Ireland the
issue is not whether or not kids go to school, it is whether or not they
get an education!
In my view, school doesn't suit all kids but in care practice we often
get into unnecessary struggles trying to force something that in
inevitably going to end in confrontation and failure, rather then just
going with the resistance and teaching the child what he wants to learn
when he wants to learn it (within reason).
As a home educating parent of three kids I have a particular interest in
formal vs informal education.
Regards,
John Byrne
Ireland
....
If you look up “compulsory school attendance” you will see that this
matter is prescribed pretty generally by the state (at central
government level, or at state or provincial levels) in most countries. I
suppose that one reason for this is that the state doesn’t want to
create or allow another whole category of people who must somehow be
provided for during school hours.
The quote in the example given does sound rather peremptory, yet in
important issues it probably is necessary to make it clear that a rule
or law simply has to be obeyed. The fact that it is made a state law
like this also lets the schools off the hook with regard to their having
to make alternative provision for yet another category of children.
However, things like school refusal and truancy are also already widely
recognized as being related to certain groups of children (e.g.
those who are unconfident, underachieving, indigent, inadequately
parented, anti-social or delinquent) and thus are already referred to
school staff or state departments who are manned by more clinically
trained personnel who will attempt to lead a child to better manage the
requirements of school and society. Simply to exclude, suspend or
expel these kids serves only to make their position worse, adding
rejection and punishment to their already heavy burden.
In my experience, many child and youth care workers (and certainly also
teachers and other school staff) are already assigned to work with
greater acceptance and encouragement with these children and youth like
this … and already planted in my mind is the idea that some writing on
this issue has a place in journals like CYC-Online and in discussion
groups like CYC-Net’s.
Brian Gannon_______

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